


Like Father, Like Son (Part 2)

by AgataVarano



Series: Scar [16]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Abusive Parents, F/M, Guns, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Torture, Lara is cute af, Referenced murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28437222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgataVarano/pseuds/AgataVarano
Summary: Let's say it out loud: if you guilt‑trip pure rays of sunshine into paying you not to hurt their equally pure adopted babies, you're a piece of sh*t.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Male Character
Series: Scar [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826437





	Like Father, Like Son (Part 2)

**Author's Note:**

> • English is not my first language so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes.  
> • You can find this and more fics on my Tumblr @/let-me-write-my-life and my Instagram @/agata_varano.
> 
> SPECIAL NOTE  
> This thing will be explored better in the future, but for the sake of clarity: Sergeant Smith is the guy who was supposed to arrest Lara back in 2017. He took the whole thing quite personally, including and especially Stephen keeping Lara out of jail and Lara constantly fighting terrorism on her own. And yes, he’s an ass.

_ My name is revenge and I'm here to save my name. - Shinedown (My Name) _

Sixteen days have passed. Sixteen days in which Lara has tried her best to understand Kevin and to be a decent trainer or acquaintance or whatever she is supposed to be to him and Kevin really can see the effort. He hates to admit it, but he appreciates it. If he has to be honest, he can't think of anyone putting so much effort into treating him well. Yet he still feels guilty, like he's not supposed to be working with S.H.I.E.L.D. after what they've done to his father, the coldest man he had ever met and at the same time his only family.

He still remembers that morning of almost eight years before, the cold breeze blowing in the lonely cemetery. He still sees himself standing by a lonely grave with tears in his eyes as a tall woman with short black hair told him to man up. He still feels the pain in knowing that he was alone because S.H.I.E.L.D. had decided to take his father, his family away from him.

Now he can't say that Lara is a decent substitute, but he's sure there's much worse. And after sixteen days he is sure she is the best person he could have ended up with among agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. What he doesn't understand is why? Why would someone leave Agency X for something like S.H.I.E.L.D, the greatest expression of self-righteousness and arrogance, the only organisation able to never condemn its actions, even when they're proved wrong?

On that day, that sixteenth day, he asks her this question. Lara stands still for a second, her hands gripping the training bench tighter.  _ "That's a trap, Lara. Don't fall for that, it's a f*cking trap." _ She laughs nervously. "Well, if you put out like that, mine sounds like a pretty dumb decision," she says.

Her gaze turns suddenly darker. "But I'm pretty sure I did the right thing." She straightens up and crosses her arms. "My family. They died. Killed by Agency X to make me work for them. I only found out after I had spent years among their lines."

Kevin nods, well aware that his question has opened a painful wound. "But why did you decide S.H.I.E.L.D. was better?"

She brings her legs to her chest, something that Kevin has noticed she does often when talking about certain sensitive topics. "Because they don't make me feel like a monster." Her voice is completely emotionless and she is looking at the wall in front of her. "Because I can't think of a single moment I felt completely safe after my parents' death and before meeting Strange. Because some of these people have become my family."

Kevin looks down. "Thank you."

She slowly turns to him and attempts a smile. "What for?"

"Because you are to me what S.H.I.E.L.D. is to you."

Kevin really should learn to think things through before speaking, he’d earn nothing but good from it. He clenches his fists, gaze locked on the woman before him, ignoring all the Avengers surrounding them. “You killed him!” he shouts as his eyes start to water.

“I- I can explain-” she stutters and Kevin is sure he never wished to punch someone in the face so much before.

He takes a step forward, pointing a finger to her chest. “Explain what? Why you killed my father?”

She grips the corner of the table, her knuckles turning as pale as the teen’s hair. “How was I supposed to know it was your father? You barely talked to me,” she spits out with a fatal hint of anger. But as soon as these words leave her mouth, she realises she’s doing exactly what Stephen did with her years before, earning nothing but curses.

He shakes his head, using all his strength not to cry.  _ “Man up, Linch.” _ That voice still lingers in the back of his head and he follows the order, swallowing heavily. “You had the audacity to tell me you were on the right side and everyone else was wrong,” he screams. “But when it’s  _ you _ to kill, it’s okay!”

Lara sucks in a breath, unable to answer back because, after all, he is right and she, of all the people in the room, should understand his anger. Jonathan takes a step forward, moving his gaze between the furious teen and the motionless woman. “It’s a bit more complex than that, your father-”

“I’m sorry.”

Everyone’s eyes suddenly set on Lara, her arms crossed on her chest in defense. Kevin stands still for a moment with his mouth slightly open, surprised by her unexpected answer, but soon shakes his head and furrows his brows. “I don’t care. Go f*ck yourself.” And before anyone else can even acknowledge it, he’s running away, tears streaming down his face because, indeed, he’s never been able to actually man up.

Jonathan is about to run after him, but Lara stops him, holding his arm with a strength beyond imaginable. When his eyes search for an answer on her face, she’s looking down at the table where the infamous file is still laying.

“Let him go,” she whispers. “If he’s even a little like his father, he won’t listen anyway.” Jonathan nods, not convinced, and Lara curses Kevin’s father one last time for his surprising ability to mess things up even from the other world.  _ “F*ck you, Frank Linch.” _

He’s running, running faster than the wind itself, running like his life depended on it, running as if he were still a child and the world were his backyard. Running because he just wants to get out and feel the cold breeze on his face, drying his cheeks. Running because he needs answers. He deserves answers.  _ “Where’s your dad, Kevin? Do you pronounce it ‘dad’ or ‘dead’? And what about your mother, Kevin? Where’s your mother, Kevin?” _ Few things in his life have been as satisfactory as breaking that child’s nose and kicking him until he was just a bloody mess laying on the floor.

_ “I thought she was different,” _ his conscience whines as he rushes down the stairs of the underground.  _ “They’re all the same thing: lying, manipulative motherf*ckers,” _ replies the lingering voice of his mentor and Kevin lets out a breath, pressed in a crowd of European tourists. One hour, one hour and he’ll finally be back home. And S.H.I.E.L.D. can go f*ck itself.

The pen scribbles on the paper, framing a couple interesting datas, and Lara adjusts her protective glasses on her nose with the back of her hand. Jonathan sighs loudly and steps away from the wall, getting closer to Lara than any security protocol would ever recommend. “I hope you’re not seriously taking the blame for what that assh*le did to you,” he groans.

She throws him a quick glance before returning to her compound. “I am not, but insisting would have done nothing but harm.” Something is telling her that she won’t be able to finish her experiment today.

“There’s a difference between ‘not insisting’ and apologising for something you have not done,” he comments coldly, his arms crossed and jaw locked as he stares at the unknown liquid before her.

She lets out a deep breath, abandoning her hands on the counter. “I did not apologise for that,” she replies. “I scolded him for not trusting me after I had given him a perfect reason not to trust me. That’s what I was apologising for.”

Jonathan follows her with his eyes as she puts the test tubes away and arches a brow. “And how was that supposed to do any better than insisting?”

Lara turns around with a groan. “It was not.” She removes her gloves and throws them away, her brows furrowed. “And thank you for reminding me what a failure of a trainer I am, by the way.”

Jonathan looks down at the floor tiles, sucking in a breath. “He won’t ever come back here, you know it?”

“I know, Jonathan, I know,” she replies angrily. “But what was I supposed to do? Force him to stay and tell him a bunch of excuses why I set his dad on fire? ‘Murder is my way to solve interpersonal problems, sorry not sorry’?” She clenches her fists, digging her nails deep enough in her skin for her palms to bleed. “I ruined everything and now he hates me and I can’t even blame him for that.”

He gets closer cautiously and lets out a bitter laugh. “Family issues, just like when I first met you.”

“No, it’s not,” she replies promptly, eyes locked on him. “You hated your parents, but he does not. That’s the problem.”

“Lara. If you let him go, only God knows what the hell will happen of him. Frankly, the best outcome would be some human trafficker hiring him for him to follow his father’s steps. And we don’t want that to happen.”

Lara is about to reply, when Natasha slams the door open. “Elle, Jon, we have a situation at Linch’s house.” And these words alone are able to drain all colour from Lara’s face.

Duncan Hunt digs his nails deeper into his assistant’s face. “I told you: call Anderson  _ now. _ ” With unnecessary violence, he pushes him on the floor and takes a step towards the hostage, curled up on the floor. “Johnson should definitely take better care of her puppies,” he comments with a grin, careful not to stain his boots in the blood covering the floor.

A quick glance out of the window allows him to see three cars parking right out of the house, moving with difficulty in the crowd of policemen. He smirks and gestures to the dark-haired woman near him to come closer. “Don’t shoot immediately, I first want to see our friend scared.”

The woman nods and, as she instructs her subjecteds, Duncan walks back to the hostage. He grabs his upper arms and drags him to the window of the small living room, then pushes him on the floor, as to keep his presence a surprise. He lights a cigarette and starts smoking calmly. “Your father had a great taste in cigarettes,” he comments with a smirk, looking down for a moment at the teen on the ground. “As well as in apprentices.”

Outside the building, Lara jumps out of the car, loaded gun in hand, followed by Jonathan. Sergeant Smith throws her a glance and arches his brows. “I’m sorry princess, but we have everything under control.”

A bullet avoiding his foot for an inch proves him wrong. As all guns are promptly set on him, Duncan grins. “How cute of you, visiting me.”

Lara clenches her jaw and tightens her grip around the gun. “Where’s the teen?”

“Wait, they have a hostage?” Smith asks surprised and Jonathan can’t help but roll his eyes, making Duncan laugh.

“Come get him,” he replies sarcastically, before shutting the door.

Kevin looks up at him as he takes again the cigarette he had left on the ashtray by the window. The man smirks at Lara bantering with Jonathan and Smith. “She killed your dad, didn’t she?” he asks at Kevin, without even looking at him. Upon hearing a nod in response, he breathes out a laugh. “Yeah, really mean of her to get rid of her abuser,” he concludes before putting out his cigarette with the toe of his boot and walking away, leaving Kevin with his eyes wide open.

Duncan’s phone rings and he smiles upon hearing Smith’s voice on the other side. The conversation between them goes on for several minutes, but Kevin doesn’t listen, too busy staring intensely at the only known face, that of the silent man sitting not far from him. The teen mutters something against his cloth gag, successfully drawing his attention.

The man approaches him and momentarily frees his mouth. “What do you want?”

“Is it true?” he stutters. “Did my father abuse Miss Johnson?”

He does a grimace, unable to understand his sudden interest. “He also put her parents six feet underground, for what matters. Now shut up,” he cuts short before covering his mouth again and kicking him in the stomach.

In that moment, Kevin realizes that everything he had always believed in was a lie. He had always liked to think his father was a good person, that S.H.I.E.L.D had been wrong for killing him. He for sure didn’t want to believe that behind the mask of a cold but overall decent father was the figure of a terrific monster who didn’t work for a terrorist organization because he was forced to but because he earned something from it. Maybe he should have listened to Miss Johnson when he still could.

Finally Duncan gets up. “Too little money, sergeant. Wish the kid goodbye.” With that said, he marches towards Kevin and lifts him enough for his head to rest on the windowsill. He presses his gun to the teen’s temple and grins, already picturing Lara’s face when he will throw the dead body to her feet.

Unexpectedly to him, the door is kicked open and a bullet pierces his skull before he can pull the trigger, sending them both on the floor, one in a pool of blood and the other really close to it. Kevin’s acquaintance jumps forward, a knife in hand, but is pushed back by a punch to his jaw. From his position, the teen struggles to see anything but a pair of dark sneakers moving among the increasing number of people on the floor.

Before he can even realize it, he’s being forced to his feet by a woman, specifically the dark-haired one from little before. She presses a pocket knife to his throat and forces his head up, finally allowing him to see Lara and Jonathan standing with their guns pointed. “You may want to put those down, sweeties,” the woman jokes as a man walks beside her.

Jonathan throws Lara a glance and she nods, her eyes set on Kevin as she slowly lowers her gun and places it to her feet. “Now let him go.”

The woman tightens her grip around Kevin and shakes her head. “On your knees. And if I see any of your magic tricks, the kid’s gone.”

And to the teen’s great surprise, Lara falls to her knees, a scared expression on her face, followed by a rather confused Jonathan. The only agent left abandons his leader’s side and walks behind Lara, wrapping a hand around her throat.

Kevin widens his eyes.  _ “Please, don’t. Don’t do that.” _

The man grins. “This will teach you not to try and play the hero.”

_ “No, no, no, no!” _

He firmly places his gun to her temple and-

And the man screams in pain, falling on the ground and shaking vigorously under the influence of a sudden electric discharge. The dark-haired woman takes a step back, dragging Kevin with her, but is quite literally struck by lightning and falls on the floor dead.

Lara slowly gets up, throwing Jonathan a confused look and asserting that he’s even more speechless than before. Her brain finally gives up trying to figure out what is going on when Kevin runs to hug her. She silently asks Jonathan for an answer, but he just laughs at her confusion and looks out of the window to Sergeant Smith who  _ finally _ decided to check if everything’s alright.

“I’m sorry, I-” Kevin mutters against Lara’s shoulder, “I didn’t know he… he-”

She shakes her head as she caresses his hair. “It’s alright, it’s alright.” She lets out a breath and is surprised by how glad she is that he is safe. “Are you okay?” she finally asks and he just nods, tucking his face in the crook of her neck.

“Are we almost there?” Kevin asks, redirecting his gaze from the window to Lara.

She smiles. “Five minutes at best, promise,” she replies.

Jonathan smirks. “What’s it? The third time you say that?”

“That’s your fault,” she answers back, slightly turning down the volume of the radio. “You got the road wrong twice!”

“Well, you could pick your own navigator.” He arches an eyebrow as his usual grin covers his mouth. “But that’d mean having less time to fangirl over Maria Brink.”

She rolls her eyes, earning a laugh from Kevin. As soon as Jonathan is about to continue the conversation, she turns the volume of the radio back up just in time for the chorus of Adrenalize to begin.

When they finally arrive at their intended destination, Lara leans back against her seat and smiles, turning to Kevin. “Ready to meet your new family?”

He nods excitedly and jumps out of the car. A smiling woman in a flower dress is already standing by the door waiting for him. “Hey, sorry for being late, my sister sucks at driving,” Jonathan jokes as he gets out of the car.

Lara throws him a look and the woman, Mrs Hudson, laughs before calling her husband inside the house.

Almost two hours have passed and Lara must admit the Hudson’s seem a great family. When Kevin first told her he wanted to move out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility she had met him in, she had felt like she had done something wrong, like he had not forgiven her for everything that had happened. She knew she had no right over him, but considering his luck with families she was seriously concerned. It took her awhile to adjust to the idea, but finally she had come to the conclusion that he deserved to be part of a family as good as the one she had been part of.

Now, as she sits beside Jonathan on a leather couch in a tiny suburban house, she has a feeling that Kevin will like this new start. She really hopes he will.

Jonathan places a hand on her thigh. “Well, time to go Elle.”

They get up and, while Jonathan jokes with Mrs Hudson, proving himself much more talkative than her husband, Kevin wraps his arms around Lara’s shoulders. She hugs him back, patting his back. “Will you call me?” he asks.

She laughs. “Unless I die yes, I will.”

“And how soon do you plan on dying?”

“I’ll call you a couple of times before, don’t worry.”

He parts from her and smiles. “Also, thank you.”

“What for?” she asks, furrowing her brows.

“Everything, just- everything.”

She smiles. “Anytime.” Maybe, contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the Flinch genealogy is the absolute worst. Especially those underage.


End file.
